Major delays on the Red Line this morning. At Quincy Center, a train died and one car filled with smoke. Then the doors wouldn't open. Kerstin Haley reports:
People busted open the windows to let people out.
The Orange Line is also having its problems - once you could get to the trains. JTGard6306 reports:
Oak Grove is literally biggest disaster ive ever seen in my life. Accidents, fights, ZERO spots. AVOID!
Neighborhoods:
Topics:
Free tagging:
Like the job UHub is doing? Consider a contribution. Thanks!
Ad:
Comments
That red line incident sounds a bit more serious than usual...
By aldos
Thu, 01/29/2015 - 8:46am
Brings this to mind.
In a perverse sense...
By octr202
Thu, 01/29/2015 - 9:13am
...thankfully the T and local FDs have lots of experience with rapid transit related fires.
Another one
By anon
Thu, 01/29/2015 - 9:05am
Another one to forward to the IOC!
This is terrifying
By Michael
Thu, 01/29/2015 - 10:05am
What if an IOC member comes [to ride the Orange Line or the far reaches of the Red Line] to do an independent spot inspection? They might somehow get the idea that this city isn't ready for this shit
HAH!
By anon
Thu, 01/29/2015 - 10:12am
Ride the subway?! IOC members' idea of public transit is black car service.
Um, no
By Waquiot
Thu, 01/29/2015 - 11:13am
Okay, I get it. Your world ends at the Charles, but if you look at cities building up their infrastructure for big events, even 6 months from the Olympics or World Cup or whatever things tend to be Snafued. Trust me, the IOC will not be looking at the aftermath of a snowstorm in 2015 as a judge for how the MBTA will be in 2024. What they might look at would be commitments to infrastructure upgrades (in this case, the new cars on order, surprise surprise, for the Orange and Red lines) to make sure Boston will have a means to transport people 9 years from now.
The IOC were worried about infrastructure on Salt Lake City, Athens, Sochi, and now Rio. That a train caught fire in Quincy today is no different than when trains caught fire in London 9 years before they hosted the games.
First hand account via reddit
By anon
Thu, 01/29/2015 - 9:17am
https://www.reddit.com/r/boston/comments/2u2oxp/re...
Emergency Door Release Mechanism?
By Elmer
Thu, 01/29/2015 - 10:41am
Aren't there emergency door release levers, accessible from outside the car via those little square openings on either side of the doors? (In the picture below, one can be seen in the middle of the creepy stewardess' neck.) If so, this knowledge should be made available for use in emergencies such as this.
[img]http://elmercatdotorg.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/img_6675.jpg[/img]
yes
By cybah
Thu, 01/29/2015 - 10:53am
I was wondering this myself. There's ones on the inside and outside.. why weren't these used. I know they aren't well marked but the T a few years ago explained where they were...
I didn't know about the ones
By lbb
Thu, 01/29/2015 - 11:19am
I didn't know about the ones outside the car, but there's one inside the car, yes? Did any of the passengers try that? If they did (and it didn't work), I wonder if the outside release would have done any better.
Big hooray for the T employee running by a closed car full of asphyxiating passengers. That's some customer service, all right.
Yes
By cybah
Thu, 01/29/2015 - 11:23am
It's train dependent but they are under the first seats next to the door. Its a little door you pull up and there's a lever.
I believe...
By octr202
Thu, 01/29/2015 - 11:37am
...one class of Red Line cars does not have the outside door releases (the black rubber circles). It's either the 01500's or the 01600's, but from one photo, it looks like it was the car in question. If they aren't there on the outside, the ones under the seat inside (which aren't well advertised good reason - don't want people opening a door onto the third rail) might not be there, either.
You can always open the doors to the next car to move away from a smokey car (emergency only, obviously). There are emergency pulls to unlock the end doors (and dump the brakes, stopping the train) on the doors at either end.
I heard the problem was not a
By anon
Thu, 01/29/2015 - 11:22am
I heard the problem was not a fire, but a "runaway motor", essentially meaning a short results in the motor and wheels on one axle spinning while the train is stopped. That generates the "whirring" noise and produces a lot of smoke as the brake shoes are burned off and the spinning steel wheels are grinding into the steel rail. The solution is usually to cut power to the motors either by locking them out from within the train, or if that doesn't work, actually lifting the third-rail shoes along the side of the car. It appears this problem was compounded by door failure in the car, and thus people not wanting to wait until the power to the motor was cut.
There is an emergency door release on the doors at the end of each car (the door leading either to the motorperson's cab or the next car). The older Red Line cars however don't have the external door release levers near the bottom of each platform-side door leaf.
Friday Globe story noted that
By anon
Fri, 01/30/2015 - 7:02am
Friday Globe story noted that the doors not opening on the car was not a door failure, but was a direct result of the wheels's still spinning on one of the axles:
"He said the “doors functioned correctly for today’s incident” because they are not supposed to open when the train is still moving. Because of the propulsion failure, some of the car’s wheels were still spinning during the stop, which caused the doors to stay closed, according to Pesaturo."
A Great Example Of Failing To See The Bigger Picture
By Elmer
Fri, 01/30/2015 - 10:41am
Claiming there was no malfunction of the door mechanisms completely overlooks the fact that passengers were trapped in a car filling with smoke, with no apparent means of escape.
Failing to acknowledge the bigger picture
By roadman
Fri, 01/30/2015 - 2:50pm
is exactly what PR types are paid to do. However, what is inexcusable is when MSM outlets like the Glob(e) accept obvious BS at face value.
Woe to those who enter Quincy Center this AM
By TheTree
Thu, 01/29/2015 - 9:26am
I believe my train was directly behind the disabled one. It took us about 45 minutes to get from Braintree station to Quincy Center, where we had to disembark so that our train could push the one in front of it.Quincy Center was a mess, with the usual rush hour crowds trying to cram onto a couple of buses heading to JFK (I saw one leave with a guy standing in the stairwell right next to the door). I decided to head home rather than to spend another hour+ getting to my office in North Cambridge; I really feel for those who don't have that flexibility.
How much time needs to pass
By anon
Thu, 01/29/2015 - 9:34am
How much time needs to pass before we can blame Charlie?
Anyone from the media checking in?
By anon
Thu, 01/29/2015 - 9:52am
In between taking turns lavishing praise on the governor, could someone fit in a question about the collapse of our public transporation system?
Ask Go Boston 2030
By anon
Thu, 01/29/2015 - 2:54pm
Send a question yourself. Granted, it's only to the mayor's office and not the governor, but this campaign is everyone's chance to help shape the conversation around the future of transportation in Boston.
goboston2030.org
Before the Olympics guys
By mariac
Thu, 01/29/2015 - 10:57am
Before the Olympics guys start playing around with how to spend money to ruin the Boston Common, they better fix the MBTA first!!!!
Seriously?
By anon
Thu, 01/29/2015 - 11:43am
http://www.myfoxboston.com/story/27971845/smoke-fo...
Never heard the expression
By anon
Thu, 01/29/2015 - 1:54pm
Never heard the expression "Where there's smoke there is usually no fire?"
People on the T need to chill out and stop booting out windows for no reason. Check your paranoia.
T-spokesperson motto
By anon
Thu, 01/29/2015 - 4:16pm
The customer is always wrong
Add comment